Mike Rogers: China’s newspaper cyberhack a wake-up call

The chairman of the Intelligence Committee expressed confidence Wednesday that the hackers recently targeting newspapers and other companies would soon “wake up” Washington on cybersecurity.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), speaking to the conference of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, emphasized that new threats from China, Iran and elsewhere would help lawmakers “find some common ground this year” on a bill that could allow companies and the government to share data about emerging cyber risks. Rogers also pledged to reintroduce soon a new version of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, his bill from last year.

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“I think the newspapers that came out very publicly … is a positive thing — that people start realizing everybody is vulnerable and it’s only going to get worse,” Rogers said. He was referring to the now-public intrusions affecting The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.

Rogers, who chairs the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, earlier had noted that he had a “chuckle” when “one of those newspapers, which shall remain nameless but was located in New York City,” asked for government help.

“We are in a cyberwar, and we’re losing,” Rogers said.

For now, Rogers said he plans to reintroduce his CISPA information-sharing measure, which cleared the House in 2012 but quickly drew a White House veto threat. Asked after his speech, the chairman said he would “venture to guess the bill you will see is very close to the bill that actually passed” the chamber. Rogers appeared to be referring to the changes supporters made before the vote to address privacy concerns, though some members of Congress and privacy advocates said the late tweaks were not enough.

Rogers urged NARUC attendees to lobby against hard mandates on critical infrastructure even though the Obama administration is preparing an executive order meant to cover power plants, water systems and other such entities.

He pointed out the heightened cyberthreats emerging from China, Russia and Iran. While the chairman said the first two nations aren’t likely to launch any sort of cyberoffensive against the United States, Rogers said China hasn’t felt any qualms with “stealing America’s intellectual property.” He also cited the committee’s investigation last year of two Chinese-based telecom companies, Huawei and ZTE, which Rogers and others alleged had connections to official Beijing. Specifically, Rogers slammed Huawei on Wednesday for a “PR battle like I’ve never seen before to reposition themselves.”

And Rogers depicted Iran as a rogue actor that’s seeking to “develop their cyberattack capability and make an impact for their political gain.” The chairman cited the cyberattack on Aramco, an oil company in Saudi Arabia, believed to be the result of Iran’s work. He pointed out the new denial-of-service attacks on bank websites, which also appear to be originating from Iran.